The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. (See Jeremiah 18:1-11 NRSV).

What makes contemplative prayer unique from other forms of prayer? Isn’t going to a church service enough?

There e are many forms of prayer for the Christian. Liturgical prayer. Intercessory prayer. Devotional prayer. These and other prayer forms are all important. Contemplative prayer is about what is inside of our hearts. Where other forms of prayer seem to stop at the end of our lips and minds; contemplative prayer takes us on the longest journey; from the head to the heart. Lectio Divina or the prayerful reading of the Scriptures is a contemplative type of prayer. The words of Scripture that we read very slowly go into our eyes and mouth, then down deep into our deepest selves where the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the words. God teaches our hearts as we meditate on what God wants us to learn from what we read. The next step is to pray to God for ourselves to be led into a deeper awareness and relationship through what we learned. The last part of Lectio Divina is to sit in the presence of God in contemplation to just be there and do nothing else.

In contemplation, we allow God to be the potter to mold and shape us from within our interior self.

“We can’t see God by some sort of intellectual vision, because cognition depends on a sensory infrastructure which cannot see divinity. It is only at the level of spirit that God is visible” (Michael Casey. Toward God: The Ancient Wisdom of Western Prayer., p.163).

St. Benedict wrote The Rule as an instruction to the heart about letting go of the many things we cling to. He knew that God wants us to be so much more than what we think we can be. God is at work in us through contemplative prayer to be the most beautiful and amazing person from the inside out.

“Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may he bring us to everlasting life” (RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in English, p.95).